The Sourcing Hero

Procurement is the kind of job where success is largely fueled by the strength of your relationships. Having trust and respect between procurement and the business, as well as between procurement and suppliers, can often make or break an effort. But it all starts with the team dynamic that exists within procurement. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Dr. Cindi...

Procurement has come a long way over the last few decades, but the fact that they always want to achieve more shouldn’t lead them to discount or overlook how good they have it today. Whether that means the quality of supplier relationships, the speed of spend analytics, or the regard they enjoy from stakeholders, there is a lot to be grateful for. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host...

Activewear company Under Armour unveiled a line of regenerative sportswear at Milan Fashion Week in 2025. This is their first collaboration with recent acquisition Unless Collective, a producer of zero-plastic, plant-based fashion.  The effort to remove non-degradable textiles from landfills is admirable, but will it work? In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes ba...

What would it feel like if all of the tasks, meetings, obligations, and pressures of work were suddenly… gone? Would it be a relief or would the stress associated with making the decision to step away from work be so strong that it ruined your newfound freedom? In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Vytas Sliesoraitis. Vytas is a career procurement professional wi...

A career is a heck of a thing to manage - especially when it is your own. You change with each phase of growth and new experience, and your job prospects change as well. The better you know yourself and what makes you happy - yes, HAPPY - at work, the more successful you will be in your next endeavor. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Gale Daikoku. In additio...

While procurement often thinks about purchase price as equal to cost, some purchases come with a longer term cost to own and maintain. Being able to understand the concept of total cost of ownership (TCO) and factor that into sourcing and award decisions will ultimately determine whether procurement’s negotiated savings reach the bottom line or evaporate into costs for waste, downtime, and mainten...

Could how you think - about yourself - change the way you experience the world around you? We all have past experiences that we carry with us, often for life. Those experiences and how we process them not only become a part of who we are, they influence how we process later events and circumstances. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Ryan Christensen. Ryan is...

Hard boiled. Over medium. Scrambled. Poached. Deviled. There are lots of ways to enjoy eggs, one of the most popular and least expensive sources of healthy protein available, but lately there has been only one way to describe them: expensive. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes back Kris Lance, Vice President and Senior Director at Una, for a monthly conversati...

We all know that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but it is easy to forget how intimidating those first few feet can be. Whether procurement is focused on strengthening their core skills or pushing for larger scale impact, it is essential for everyone to be aligned in their thinking, to leverage their strengths, and to know where the journey is expected to end. In this epis...

Most procurement professionals will acknowledge that supplier relationship management (SRM) is a core part of value creation and risk management, but how many organizations are effectively carrying SRM out at scale to the benefit of their company and their suppliers? Not as many as would like to be successful at supplier relationship management. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host K...

Imagine a group of people is having lunch on the deck of a ship, and that ship is sailing into a storm. Along comes a waiter with a tray of drinks, and that waiter is riding… a monocycle. Even as the seas start to rise and the wind blows, the tray can’t be allowed to fall. That waiter… is procurement. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Richard Beaumont. Richar...

One minute you’re going about your business, and the next minute all of the news headlines are focused on the Arctic Circle. What may initially seem like overblown geopolitical drama and hyperbole quickly comes into sharp focus with just a bit of reading: especially where ocean trade routes are concerned. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes back Kris Lance, Vic...

Regardless of the industry you work in, deciding which third parties to work with requires strategic trade-offs, such as choosing between cost, quality, and lead time. Procurement and sourcing professionals play a critical role helping decision makers discuss and rank those variables and then use them to select and contract with suppliers. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly B...

Polyglot - noun. A person who knows and is able to use several languages. The spoken or written word can divide people as easily as it can unify them - even when they are speaking the same language. Terminology, shorthand, and acronyms may be convenient or efficient, but when they get in the way or fail to communicate the desired meaning, they aren’t doing us any favors. In this episode of The Sou...

Depending on your point of view, the idea of transformation is either alluring or terrifying - or maybe a little bit of both? And while procurement teams rarely have the formal skillset to lead transformation projects, they are often tasked with just that. Fortunately, with a bit of planning and some well asked questions, it is possible to keep your transformation on track. In this episode of The...

The vast majority of podcasts fizzle out before they reach 10 episodes, so making it past that point is a real achievement. 100 episodes is seen as a tipping point, both for the host and the audience. But 200? That puts a show above the crowd. In this very special 200th episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner is joined by Anthony Clervi, Principal Owner at Una, and Kris Lance, Vice...

Companies - and their procurement teams - are always looking for opportunities to differentiate. These opportunities take many forms, but few appeal to leadership, shareholders, customers, and the supplier community as universally as social procurement. Of course, that broad appeal brings systemic challenges with it that procurement will have to be prepared to overcome. In this episode of The Sour...

Procurement is a function whose time has arrived. The question is whether they are ready to make the changes necessary to seize the opportunity and meet business-wide expectations for process and experience at the same time. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Peter Sharoff. Peter has executive-level experience in a number of functional areas, including transfo...

Working for a large ‘household name’ company has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side are the established processes, time-tested pathways that keep everything rolling. At the same time, these same processes can be a bit restrictive. Fortunately for procurement, striking a balance of structure and creativity can create the perfect environment for innovation at scale. In this episode...

As listeners know well, the goal of The Sourcing Hero podcast is to capture the epic stories of people who are rising up and beating the odds to create exceptional value within procurement directly from those heroes themselves. Kris Lance is definitely one of those people. Kris is the Vice President and General Manager at Una, and for the last few years, he has occupied a monthly spot on The Sourc...

As we approach the end of the year - not to mention the holiday season - many of us will be taking time to stop and reflect. Was the year gone by what we expected? What hopes, wishes, and aspirations will we step into the new year holding high? In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes back Kris Lance, Vice President and General Manager at Una, for a monthly conversa...

The goal of The Sourcing Hero Podcast is to capture the epic stories of people who are rising up and beating the odds to create exceptional value within procurement - directly from those heroes themselves. Over the last 12 months, we’ve heard from some of the most innovative minds in procurement and beyond to explore topics that range from cutting-edge optimization strategies to deeply personal jo...

Lots of organizations want to ‘do good’ through environmental programs, social programs, or both. But scaling those programs and making them truly successful on a commercial level requires a different level of strategic planning - especially when the impact and the opportunity are global. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Michael Amos. Michael is the Managing...

Canadian media studies philosopher Marshall McLuhan rose to prominence in the 1960s when he declared, “The Medium is the message.” For McLuhan, it was the medium itself that shaped and controlled "the scale and form of human association and action." We saw this dynamic in full force this year, with podcasts rising to the top of the media landscape during the 2024 presidential election cycle. In th...

Continuous improvement is as desirable as any other strategic business objective, but making it happen, or - better still - starting an ongoing cycle of continuous improvement is the ultimate goal. If procurement wants to be part of that positive cycle, they have to collaborate with, listen to, and communicate effectively with the business. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly...